Proposed AIDS Vaccine Passes Preliminary Test

The long quest for an AIDS vaccine has yielded encouraging results, the news agency AFP reported on Friday.

"Shown to be safe in humans, the candidate vaccine has now advanced to the next phase of the pre-approval trial process, and will be tested in 2,600 women in southern Africa to see whether it prevents HIV infection."

While preliminary reports are hopeful, "the research team and outside experts warn there are no guarantees it will actually work in the next trial phase dubbed HVTN705 or 'Imbokodo' -- the isiZulu word for 'rock.'

"Just because it protected two-thirds of monkeys in a lab trial" doesn't mean the drug will protect humans, "and thus we need to await the results of the... study before we know whether or not this vaccine will protect humans against HIV infection," he said."

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